Welcome to this month's HSPC blog where we catch up with our solicitor firms to give you valuable information and advice for everything property in the Highlands.

Tracy Bruce of Innes & Mackay explains the differences between closing dates, under offer and sold.

Closing Dates? Under Offer? Sold? What is the difference?

Closing Dates

A closing date is a tool used by a seller when there are multiple parties interested in their property. The estate agent advertising the property will advise the seller of when they should or should not set a closing date. All interested parties are then invited to submit their best and final offer to the seller's estate agent at a specified date and time, it is essentially blind bidding and no offers will be considered until the closing date is passed. Nor would any fresh offers be considered after the closing date!

The seller and their estate agent will then discuss all offers received at the closing date and select the offer that suits their circumstances best. It is a common myth that the seller will accept the highest offer, that is not always the case, the seller will take into consideration what conditions are contained within the offer, the price and when the purchaser can complete the transaction when reaching their decision.

After a decision is made the property is then marked as under offer......

Under Offer

A property is marked as under offer when a seller has verbally agreed to accept a purchaser's offer and is happy with the conditions contained therein. It is important to note that a verbal acceptance does not make a sale legally binding! What under offer means is that the seller and the purchaser are actively working together, with their appointed solicitors, to conclude a contract for the sale. A contract starts by the purchaser's offer. It is common for an offer to be conditional upon certain events. For example, it may be subject to obtaining a mortgage or subject to sale. The sellers solicitor therefore obtains their instructions on the offer and issues their written acceptance. The acceptance will normally propose or change a completion date and remove any conditions referred to above. The deal is still not legally binding at this point as it will be open to the purchaser to accept these amendments or insert further amendments. In the event that the terms of the acceptance are agreeable to the purchaser, the purchaser’s solicitor will then issue a concluding letter making the sale legally binding and it is at this point that the property will be marked as sold.......

Sold

A property is marked as sold when the contract for the sale has concluded. This means that the seller and purchaser have reached an agreement in writing and will not be in a position to withdraw from the transaction without substantial financial penalty. The property is removed from the market and the purchasers will obtain the keys to their new home on the agreed completion date.

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